Dallas Cowboys are rightfully confused and bewildered by embarrassing road woes
The Dallas Cowboys are like everyone else. They are officially confused and bewildered at themselves.
The Cowboys have clinched the playoffs for the third straight season, yet can’t get excited about its post season prospects because it simply doesn’t play well on the road.
A 31-10 loss at the Buffalo Bills on Sunday drove that point home again.
The Cowboys are 3-4 on the road compared to a 7-0 mark at home, including 15 straight wins dating back to last season.
But those road losses have them looking at a playoff journey that will likely require them to win on the road if they hope to get to the Super Bowl.
And following the setback against the Bills, which ended the team’s five-game winning streak, the Cowboys are admittedly at a loss for words why their home and road performances are so different.
“Honestly, it’s just unacceptable at this point,” Micah Parsons said. “There’s no excuse for it. It’s mind-boggling. I don’t understand why we’re not playing well and why we’re not coming together on the road.”
The Bills owned the Cowboys on both sides of the ball, which is the typically the case for Dallas on the road.
It is thorough and complete no show road performances that first reared it ugly head in a unconscionable 28-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals (3-11) and that was before the Cowboys got mollywhopped 42-10 by the San Francisco 49ers.
Their play and their numbers on the road compared to home simply don’t make any sense, considering how good and dominant the Cowboys have been at home. The Bills embarrassment came one week after a 33-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles (10-3) at AT&T Stadium.
Consider that the Cowboys have scored 31 touchdowns in seven home games to 17 in seven road games. They are averaged 39.9 points per game at home and 21.7 points per game on the road.
And if you take the three road wins against the lowly likes of the New York Giants (5-9), Carolina Panthers (2-12) and Los Angeles Chargers (5-9), the Cowboys have largely less than competitive in the road losses, save for the 28-23 setback at Philadelphia.
“That’s the message,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “We play so well at home, and there’s just too big of a gap on the road, and we’re conscious of it. We got to be better than this. I don’t think anybody expected to play the way we did tonight. They played well, not to discredit their performance, but we got to be much better on the road regardless.”
The Cowboys went into the Buffalo game hoping to prove they can beat a good team on the road and gain some confidence going into the playoffs, while hopefully playing their way into a higher seeding to guarantee at least one game if not more games on the road in the playoffs.
But Sunday they had arguable their worst performance of the season. Quarterback Dak Prescott and the league’s highest ranked offense scored just one touchdown and that came with the Bills up 31-3 in the fourth quarter.
And the defense allowed Buffalo to run the ball at will with 49 rushes for 266 yards. All-Pro quarterback Josh Allen only completed 7 passes for 94 yards.
“Yeah, it’s it’s a huge difference,” Prescott said. “This next week of preparation and honestly these next couple of weeks are about is figuring out what that difference is and trying to close that gap. Obviously, we’d love to come out and produce like we do at home but that just hasn’t been the case. So we’ve got to find out what what those answers are and try to close that close that gap and we can’t be those two different other teams.”
The problem for the Cowboys is they have no idea how to correct it.
With two of their two of their last three games at home, time is running out.
The Cowboys play at the Miami Dolphins (10-4) on Christmas Eve before at home against the Detroit Lions (10-4) and the season final the Washington Commanders (4-10).
“Yeah, that’s a good question,” Prescott acknowledged when asked again to explain the team’s road woes. “I don’t know. It is probably one of the first times I’ve dealt with with something like this. We’ve got to embrace I guess more than anything just being on the road, being the underdog going into somebody else’s territory. Something I’ve always enjoyed, honestly.
“I wish I had an answer.”
They all do.
This story was originally published December 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
